This Product:

My least favorite part of this Spyderco pen knife is opening and closing it with one hand. I’d never put it together until I worked the action on this knife, but one of the great benefits of a locking folder is that it allows the mechanism to be infinitely smoother than any slip joint. I know, right now a lot of you are mumbling “No sh*t, genius”. It just really hits home with this knife because my eyes are telling my brain it’s a Spyderco, and so my brain is telling my hand it’s going to have a nice smooth action, but my thumb is telling my brain it’s more like 3 miles of bad road. Maybe it’ll smooth out some with use, and I’d get more used to it. But it doesn’t make a great first impression. I’ve worked it through a few hundred cycles of opening/closing, but it’s still pretty bumpy. Another concern I have is for the long-term stability of the blade. It takes a fair amount of force to open the knife, and if you’re opening the knife with one hand there is a greater lateral force than usual, as a lateral force is necessary to keep your thumb in the hole. It may be that over time, with repeated one-hand openings, the knife may be prone to develop lateral blade play. I do understand that there were design constraints on this knife, and I have every confidence that it’s as smooth as you can make a slip joint and still maintain a reasonable stiffness (and therefore safety) of the open knife. To end on a positive note, if I open it with two hands it’s as smooth as any slip joint I’ve ever had in hand.

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